It has been a very wet winter all round and the Channel Islands have not escaped the downpours. Since November Jersey has seen 180mm more than 30-year average, with an exceptional 150m falling in February alone, almost double the monthly average of 78mm.
"We managed to get a reasonable start planting the very early steep slopes or côtils as these drain very quickly and we had some dry days in mid-January," explains Mike Renouard, Business Unit Director at The Jersey Royal Company. "Since then, we have had to work between showers which has meant that we have only had 2 or 3 dry days each week where it has been suitable for planting, and this has mainly been on fields with a slope or the light sandy land around the coast and to the west of the Island. The last few weeks we have had a lot of rain and have not been able to get on the land and we are running out of the sandier soils, so the land is taking longer to drain and dry out."
Mike said that they are further behind than they would like to be at the end of February. "That said temperatures have been mild and so what has been planted is growing well with the first of the plastic covers due to come off the earliest fields in the next week. If we can get a couple of dry weeks early in March, we could quite quickly catch up. What we do know is that what has been planted has gone into the ground in good conditions."
It is still too early to predict where they will be at harvest time and some late frosts through March and April are still a possibility.
"The earliest côtils look like they could still be on time for an early April harvest, but volumes may be slow to build with limited areas being planted. It all depends on what weather conditions are like over the next four weeks. More spring like conditions and the crops will move on quickly. Wet and cold weather and we could see a later harvest than we would like. All Jersey potato farms will be watching the weather forecasts closely. We all look at 3 or 4 different forecasts and hope that the most favourable actually turns out to be true. There are lot of crossed fingers at this time of year!"
For more information:
Mike Renouard
Jersey Royal Company
mike.renouard@jerseyroyal.co.uk